Oak Park clarifies morning liquor service rules

Mimosas, bloody Marys and other drinks containing alcohol may be served in Oak Park at 9 a.m. on weekends and holidays, the Oak Park Village Board recently clarified.

An old ordinance restricting service until 11 a.m. was changed in 2011, but it wasn't done quite right, Village Clerk Teresa Powell said. At a recent board meeting, the village cleaned up the ordinance to end any confusion among restaurant owners.

"It is now formally, totally in effect," Powell said.

The board made the change to clarify service rules for restaurants serving drinks with brunch — an increasingly popular social activity in the town, Powell said.

The news came as no surprise to the Marion Street Cheese Market, whose liquor license has allowed it to serve booze whenever the restaurant was serving food for the past five years. But others among the approximately 40 liquor license holders in Oak Park have had questions in recent years, Powell said.

The board allowed earlier alcohol service after the Liquor Control Review Board recommended the change in fall 2011, Powell said. At the same time, the board approved another recommendation that allowed restaurant customers to order drinks without purchasing a full meal. The recommendations followed public hearings in which several people questioned that rule.

"That was probably the more burning issue for most people," Powell said.

Another change allowed theaters to serve alcohol during intermissions.

Oak Park, along with Evanston, was slow to allow much drinking after prohibition was repealed in 1933. The village issued its first license to a hotel around 1980, Powell said. A lot of minor adjustments to Oak Park's liquor laws have brought it to where it is today, she said. Powell, a longtime resident of the village, added that some of the town's former leaders might be "rolling in their graves" at the changes.